Journalist

The General Synod moved a step closer to banning clergy from membership of groups such as the British National Party (BNP) when it gave final approval to the Clergy Discipline (Amendment) Measure this afternoon.

The Measure doesn’t itself proscribe membership of the BNP, but gives the House of Bishops power to declare, by a two-thirds majority, that an organisation’s “constitution, policies, objectives or public statements . . . to be incompatible with the teaching of the Church of England in relation to the equality of persons or groups of different races”.